‘Read, research & rewrite: The secret of creative writing’

It was a perfect Sunday morning for a bunch of budding writers to get tips on creative writing from an author and literary agent Mita Kapur and senior columnist Bachi Karkaria at a workshop titled ‘The Times Passion Creative Writing Trail’ held at The Times of India office on Tonk Road, Jaipur.

The event was organized by the The Times of India to encourage writers, journalists and copy editors. Kapur kicked off her session talking about the importance of observation in writing. She cautioned budding writers not to take feedback on their writings from their friends and family.

“Friends can never be true. They know you from Adam’s era and that attachment surely reflects in their feedback. It’s better to find a person who can judge your work objectively,” said Kapur.

She argued that creative writing doesn’t follow any standard rules. It depends on the creative freedom of the writer. To explain her point, she recalled how a coffee table book on Oscar Award winner for costume Bhanu Athaiya came into shape.

“She came to me with three large-sized suitcases loaded with her pictures, designs etc. I found those pictures so evocative that I asked my team to remove everything from my office to spread those pictures. We then segregated those pictures under different heads to create that coffee table book which is still very popular,” said Kapur.

Known for her humorist columns, Karkaria’s session was laced with wit, humour and wisdom as she went on to explain the secret for creative writing. “Read, research and rewrite. Create on the spot descriptions of what you see and people you meet. Then store them in your memory,” said Karkaria, who shared secrets behind some of her writings.

The workshop was concluded by vice-president of Times Internet Ltd Rajesh Kalra whose session was on Insights of Blogging. He explained the difference between writing for the blog, web and newspaper.